Art Gallery--The Digital Refrigerator Door 

Click the title link above for the photo gallery

  I've always been an artsy-craftsy sort of person. I'm very creative.  Some characteristics we come into the world with are just part of our essence.  Other talents and hobbies come from time, interests, influences of life lived.  I've always sensed the world a little differently.   I've always had an eye for beauty, neglect, and outdoors.   

   I decided since I have gotten back into painting with acrylics and oils and other media I'd put together a gallery of my work.   It pleases me so that's what matters most. Enjoy the doing and hopefully the result.  Each one is an opportunity to improve. 

   I decided this would be my "digital refrigerator door" like when I was a kid putting pictures on the fridge at home.   

  I express my creativity in many forms. Sewing.  Furniture refinishing.  Crafts.  Painting. 

Floral creations. Gardening.  Cooking. Photography. I put my furniture projects, paintings, floral pieces in a gallery.  I am hard on myself when I first see a work.  Case in point... I created a folk art painting. Didn't like it after a year or so and donated it. Thank God I took a photo of it. I learned a lesson. I saw the painting photographed and was immediately sorry for giving it away.  I liked it. It was something I'd have purchased if it was on sale.  I am having to stop being so hypercritical of myself.    

Below: painting I gave away then wished I had not

Acrylics on Canvas

  I love working with acrylics on canvas.   They are a very forgiving media. The paint dries fast. Easy clean up.  I also learned from my daughter in law Lydia that acrylics can be as good as good as oils if you know what to do.  You can thin the paint down with water for a water color look.

You can either use thick, heavy bodied acrylics premade or you can add thickener.   It gives an opportunity to paint with palette knives without waiting eons for it to dry.  

All the paintings below are acrylic.  All except the very last one are on canvas. The final painting is on wood. It is my kitchen shelf.  

Below: Sunset Over Plott Balsams. 

Below: Season of Purple and Gold 

         

Below: Red Barn in Morgan County End of Summer September

Below: The Sisters Across Ellejoy Plain 

Below:  Gibb and Bertha Williams Home Place at Ballplay 

acrylic on canvas

Below: Jimmie Lee's Juke Joint

Oil on Canvas 

  I have only painted two oil paintings.  The first one I gave away. I donated it.  I didn't like it. I don't even have a photo of it.  The second one I just finished called Blue Bayou.

     It turned out pretty good. I had fun with it.    

 I had to review the "rules" for oil painting seeing as how I have almost no experience with it.

It is messy.  Hard to clean up. Easy to mess up.   Expensive.  Takes patience as it is sloooooow to dry so you can move on.  I used to do paint by number pictures in oil as a kid, but that doesn't really count.   I remember how long it took for a color to dry so I could move to the next one.

    The up side to oil painting is the feeling of accomplishment if it comes out decently. 

The colors are extremely vibrant. I have learned and am learning how to use texturing.  

above and below Blue Bayou oil painting. It will remain on the easel for some time to dry.  I'll eventually order a floating frame for it.  

Floral Pieces 

    I can thank my friend and former co worker Vivian Morrison Snider for teaching me how to do floral arranging and bow making.   She was a good teacher and conveyed the basic concepts to me.    I have enjoyed it for about forty years now using real greenery for wreaths and silks as well.

  I love it any time I can incorporate nature items in my work.  Pretty pebbles. Pine cones.  Bits of broken china.  Rusty implements.  Moss. Fungi.   It adds character and texture. 

Above: Autumn Apples Wreath

Below: Cades Cove Wreath

Below: Old Cotton Fields Back Home floral 

above and below redone Syroco wall pocket floral in sunny yellow bedroom Pearl wash and sand

Below: Tula Hate Floral

Above: Somewhere Beyond the Sea Wreath

Water Colors on Paper 

     

Above: Little Red Riding Hood inspired by my favorite childhood book and a photo I took of a long leaf pine savanna in South Carolina at the Audubon Center

above: book illustration from Tale of the Hairy Toe

Furniture Refinishing Projects

Above: a 1970s entry way table made of wood and resin!  Poopy brown.  

I redesigned it and got a great looking entry table from it. 

Below: chalk paint, java gel stain, and dark wax.  

Below:  1930s China press redo. It was that waterfall veneer look and came from Johnny Driver's parents home after they passed.  It then went to my grandmother.  I inherited it from her.  I redid it with black chalk paint and distressing. 

Below: the lamp is redone. It was a $4 Habitat ReStore 1970s lamp. It was poopy brown and sticky.   I painted it white.  It is sand distressed and pearl washed.  Copper touches to cover brass.  Burlap shade.   The jar by it is my first attempt at Mercury Glass. It worked! 

Oil Pastels on Paper

Want to learn more of this. Very hard! 

Below: my first fumbling attempt at oil pastel drawing.  So hard! 

Below:   Better 2nd attempt. I am finding out there are special tools and things you can use to do oil pastel work.  I'll learn it! You watch and see!  I learned today I can use Q Tips, paint brushes, my fingers to blend or I can buy paper stumps and tortillons! 

Colored Pencil on Paper

above is a detail of the voodoo symbol drawing  or "veve" for The Crossroads and Papa Legba. Guardian of the Crossroads.

Below: Juke Joint drawing of Keb Mo.  

MultiMedia Projects

Below is my favorite multimedia piece.  It is old lace cut up, canvas, acrylic and a photo I took along with a printed poem. The lace is supposed to be Queen Anne's Lace flowers.